Tag: Triathlon

Posted in My Life Now, New Year's Resolution Progress, Texas- Living with Parents

New Year’s Resolutions for 2020 – Progress as of February 4th

Posted on by Lizzie Gomez

Yes, I know it’s February. Just go with me on this! I usually don’t set New Year’s Resolutions. Don’t get me wrong. It’s my favorite holiday! I love the attitude and the positive hope that surrounds the celebration of another year of life completed and the next to come.

The thing is, I am one of those people who believe it’s always time to seek self improvement. And somehow, most of the times I’ve started a lofty goal it’s been at random times during the year (I learned to paint in spring, make balloon animals in summer, and started a weight loss regime in the fall). Hardly ever have I done anything productive right at the start of a new year. I’ve actually made bigger changes after Halloween and before Thanksgiving, like the time I became vegetarian! Yep! Right before Thanksgiving. That was an interesting holiday season, haha.

Continue reading “New Year’s Resolutions for 2020 – Progress as of February 4th” →

Posted in My Life Now, Texas- Living with Parents

Weeks of January 20th and 27th 2020- Work Woes, Weight Woes, and Workout Woes… Then a Reawakening.

Posted on by Lizzie Gomez

Yeah, it happened again. I was really sad. I skipped a week and almost another of blogging. Yep. It’s going to keep happening. But I’ve decided to do a joint recap instead of try to piece together whatever that mess was. Here’s the important bits:

 

Week of January 20th 2020

 

  • I found out I’d lost a pound of weight since the week prior.
    • I hadn’t really done anything to make that happen except being more conscious of my snacking and not being excessive with that.

 

  • I applied for a job at a hospital.
    • I’ve been really mentally blocked for a long time and just can’t bring myself to move forward in my life. Now I finally have my dietetic license and can apply for jobs in my career, but my heart hasn’t been in it. I’m so tired of being rejected. (Not from jobs per se, but in general. Especially since my internship, but also in recent personal matters.) Axyl gave me the real-talk chat I needed and I mustered up the energy to apply for one job. Still waiting on word from that hospital.

 

  • I replied to a health food company. 
    • This company seemed interesting and though they reached out to me to work for them as a cashier (well below my abilities now that I am licensed) I genuinely wanted to learn more about the company and network. I decided to meet with the CEO/ founder later in the week.

 

  • I met a guitarist in my piano class. 
    • He didn’t have his book, so I offered to share mine with him. We got to talking and it seems he’s also from a different discipline like me. Because of his experience with guitar and my experience with singing, we both know the very basics of music like notes and rhythm and such, so the class went pretty slow and we spent a lot of it chit chatting.

 

  • I didn’t go to the gym most of or the whole week.
    • I can’t really tell from my bullet points from last week. I think I didn’t go a single day…

 

  • I met with the founder of the health food company. 
    • He was not like I expected. Very stereotypical. I won’t even go into detail. Let’s just say, I’m glad I’m not working for him.

 

  • I got really sad because of that meeting. Vented to a friend. Had a fallout with said friend.
    • Tears in my cereal the next day. I’m not even joking about that. : ( Axyl gave me a pep talk and I felt better. I decided to let that relationship go. At least the way I was going about it. Why put in effort to be told to back off?

 

 

Week of January 27th 2020

 

  • Found out I’d gained 5 pounds in the last week.
    • Officially obese category II (BMI 35). New highest weight I’ve ever been.
    • That’s what being very sad and giving in to emotional eating will do to ya.

 

  • Opening up more in sign language class. 
    • It’s easier now that there’s only like 10 students instead of 30 last semester. I think I surprised my professor since he and the rest the class are used to seeing me as the quiet, smart kid. That’s the way I usually present myself in most places. A lot of people don’t get to see my dark, funny side. Ha, this class won’t know what’s coming!

 

  • Getting bored in piano class. 
    • It’s very much a beginning piano class and apart from some much needed practice sight reading. It seems I know the basics. Didn’t even feel like chatting with the guitarist.

 

  • Decided to start eating healthier one step at a time instead of trying to do everything “perfectly”
    • I know how complicated nutrition can be, but I also know how simple it can be too. I decided it doesn’t matter what I think about myself or how scared I am to be skinnier. This has gotten out of hand and I can’t keep putting it off and gaining 5 more pounds every time I get knocked down by life. There’s not next week, or starting Monday, or maybe if I feel like it. It’s now. It’s starting simple and building on it. It’s slow, but steady. It’s Wednesday. I started eating healthier on a Wednesday. I decided to start with the most basic thing. I know there are more than two dozen essential vitamins and minerals, but take it one thing at a time. For it to be a lifestyle and not a diet it has to be maintainable. Start with what you know you can do and that you can do consistently. So I did.
      • Maybe I’ll write a more detailed post just about this later. Or maybe not. I’m not trying to influence anyone into following what I’m doing for a healthier lifestyle. That’s different for everyone. Maybe it will help some, maybe it will hinder others. I’ll think about it.

 

  • First aerial silks class
    • We are in pairs for the class. My partner seems very nice and super extroverted. She made the class so much fun, even though I only successfully was able to do one of about 5 moves we were taught and it was basically hanging upside down. 🙈 I wasn’t able to climb the silk or do a pull through. (My arms are dying. >.< I need to build some upper body strength!)

 

  • Went to the gym for the first time in about 2 weeks.
    • I took my brother with me before sign language class and he also did a bit of exercise. That was cool! I used the stationary bikes. Why this gym positioned the spin bikes right in the middle of all of the weight machines (read: with my butt directly in front of a couple of guys), I have no idea. It was awkward, but I still got a short bike session in before class.

 

  • Went swimming for the first time in about 3 weeks. 😬
    • I almost didn’t go because my mom and brother didn’t want to swim. (They said it was too cold and they would rather do some other form of cardio.) But, I did my swim session without them and it felt refreshingly nice to just concentrate on myself. (Usually, I keep an eye on my mom and brother because they aren’t the strongest swimmers.)

 

  • Cousin’s birthday party!
    • Cousins invited me to join them for some bowling. 🙂 It was so much fun! I hadn’t seen all of them in a very long time, but they were very welcoming. I’m so glad I was able to go. (Even though I suck at bowling, haha!)

 

Next Week:

  • Last poem about someone I’m over. Just want to post it because it was something that hurt me deeply and I felt strongly about and now I don’t. I’m all about transformation and letting go of that is definitely a positive change in my life.
  • We’ll see how maintainable this healthier lifestyle really is. It’s been 4 days and it feels great. Hopefully I can say that after a full week. Otherwise, I’ll have to tweak it and make it more manageable.
  • Will I muster up the courage to apply for more jobs? I hope so…

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Note:

Picture is of my crappy little mountain bike that I’ve outfitted for future triathlons and indoor training. It’s not much, but it’s all I need. Such is life. I make do.

 

Posted in My Life Now, Texas- Living with Parents

Week of January 13th 2020- Hitting the Breaks on Triathlon Training and Getting Pep Talks from Friends and Family

Posted on by Lizzie Gomez

This week was a strange one. It was sad, yet hopeful. Lonely and full of friends/family. I felt utterly misunderstood and as if I were watching a movie about my life. I’m struggling with indecision and fighting against what is holding me back from moving on with my life and beginning my career that will spearhead the next chapter. Before that though, let’s start with sadness.

Monday, Jan. 13th- Sleeping the Day Away and Helping Mom find her Classroom

I woke up at 4pm today. I think I slept at like 2 or 3am. Eh. Going back to my old ways of sleeping the morning and as much of the day away as possible. This isn’t good. Continue reading “Week of January 13th 2020- Hitting the Breaks on Triathlon Training and Getting Pep Talks from Friends and Family” →

Posted in My Life Now, Texas- Living with Parents

Week of January 6th 2020- First Official Week of Triathlon Training and Some Non-Official Translation Gigs

Posted on by Lizzie Gomez

It is Thursday night as I begin writing this. I hadn’t planned on returning to this blog. I mean, I’m glad that I have, but it happened naturally, not as part of a New Year’s resolution or personal goal or anything of the sort. It’s probably better that way. I’m back because I want to be, not because I’m forcing myself to be.

I was going to start weekly blogging two nights ago, on Tuesday, but as I started writing I realized there were countless battles I waged with myself over the last six months in my mind, that I had to at least attempt to explain those occurrences on the surface. Here’s that attempt at a sort of update. The following night (Wednesday) I figured I may as well start fresh with the start of the New Year and make a weekly blog post of my first week of the year.

Yep… so now it’s Thursday… Let’s see what I can remember…

 

Monday, Jan. 6th- Probably Made a 10 Week Triathlon Training Plan

I technically stayed up Sunday night until early Monday morning (3am-ish) to make a training schedule, so that counts, right? Well, I already had a plan, but upon a bit more research I found it probably would not have been ideal. It was much more intense than a beginning training schedule should be. I haven’t exercised in about a month (minus the day before and the day of that indoor triathlon I’d done on Sunday). Starting from 0 to 12 hours of exercise a week probably would not have been a good way to start the season.

So, much to my dismay, this week’s plan is about 4 hours. I mean, from 0 to 4 hours that’s still a big jump, but I am antsy. I like to progress fast and am prone to getting impatient if I don’t see results in whatever it is I do. I like positive change and more than that, I like the validation or proof of it happening. But, fine… Slow and steady, that’s what they say wins the race, right? *sigh… Lessons in patience, I guess. Today was my first day I didn’t have other engagements since getting back from my trip to West Texas with my college buddies, so apart from making a family meal plan for the week and going on an hour indoor bike ride, I just relaxed and watched T.V. with my mom.

Below will be this week’s training plan, but basically it consists of 2 one hour stationary bike rides, 2 thirty minute treadmill runs/walks, and 2 thirty to forty minute indoor pool swims.

 

Tuesday, Jan. 7th- Probably Finally Paid for Dietetic State Licensure and Translated for Brother’s Doctors Appointments

Yes, I finally took a moment to read through some important emails about my new dietetic license and the accompanying fees and continuing education requirements I need to complete. I should be getting an official card with my state license to practice dietetics in Texas in the next two or three weeks. Yay!

Other than that, I got up at 6:13am. Know how I remember that? Because my dad and brother usually leave the house by 6:10am and I was so tired I’d fallen asleep after waking up for the first time at 5:45-ish am. I kid you not, we were in the car and on our way by 6:15am. I don’t even know how I got out of bed and dressed that fast…

But, it was important to me to go. Yes, it’s my brother’s appointment, but my dad does a lot to help my brother with his health and this was his 1 year check up appointment with several different doctors and disciplines after his kidney transplant. So… yes, important. And important for me to go to ease the language barrier. I know hospitals have translators, but if I’m available, why not help out?

Case in point: while doing a sonogram we found out my brother had his gallbladder removed. Neither my dad nor my brother knew (my brother was too young to remember at the time we suspect it was removed). I’m sure my dad signed the papers necessary to allow the surgery, but there was a lot going on at the time and I highly suspect when situations get critical there’s less time to get a translator and talk through every little (or not so little) procedure. I’m glad to be back so things like this aren’t as likely to happen.

 

Wednesday, Jan. 8th- Translating for Mom’s Doctor’s Appointment and Why I Care About Language so Much

Continue reading “Week of January 6th 2020- First Official Week of Triathlon Training and Some Non-Official Translation Gigs” →

Posted in My Life Now, Texas- Living with Parents

My First Weekly Blog of 2020- Visiting College Buddies, New Year, New Job?, First Triathlon! (Yes, all in 7 days)

Posted on by Lizzie Gomez

Things have been half crappy, half okay. …All in all, I like those odds.

 

Monday, December 30, 2019- Lazing around in West Texas

So, if you read the update I posted a few days ago, you’ll know that I planned a little vacation following my dietetic certification exam as motivation/kind of punishment depending on how that turned out. Fortunately, I passed and am now a registered dietitian. I’d spent the weekend crashing on my former university roomie’s couch in West Texas. However, Sherri had a flight to catch in order to visit family this Monday morning, so I found myself waking up in Mariah and Richard’s bed. 😬 (<- my favorite emoji, by the way)

Continue reading “My First Weekly Blog of 2020- Visiting College Buddies, New Year, New Job?, First Triathlon! (Yes, all in 7 days)” →

Posted in Texas- Living with Parents

Fall 2019- Being Sad then Doing Something About It (Overall Summary of the First Six Months since Moving Back in with my Parents After 5 Years Away at University and Such)

Posted on by Lizzie Gomez

A lot has happened since summer when I wrote my last “weekly” blog, haha…… so before posting that this weekend, this is the shortest version I could bring myself to write about the highlights (and lowlights) of the last six months since I’ve moved back in with my parents.

 

Lots of Sadness with One Glimmer of Happiness for someone else, not me (of course!)

Continue reading “Fall 2019- Being Sad then Doing Something About It (Overall Summary of the First Six Months since Moving Back in with my Parents After 5 Years Away at University and Such)” →

Posted in Uncategorized

June 2nd 2019 A Blog Update and my New Unexpected Obsession (Triathlons)

Posted on by Lizzie Gomez

What’s going on? I have descended into a very comfortable empty life of laziness. I’ve had numerous rotations in my internship that are easy to say the least. No homework means lots of YouTube and a constant internal nagging about responsibilities like laundry or this blog that do not get fulfilled. It really is upsetting, since I could have used this time to do so much more with my life, but instead I watched the entire Psych series (don’t regret that, by the way).

 

Rotations

Let’s super speed recap. Last time I wrote was Easter break. Since then I had a public policy rotation. That was boring and just busy work. The next week was an out of town trip to a supermarket rotation that was nice-ish. It was a nice change of environment. Preceptor was nice and the assignments were interesting since I was able to be creative with them. Gia snapped at me and I reminded her with a very abrupt stop of the car that upsetting the driver is not a good idea. We got through it and made it back in one piece for our next rotation in another town as well.

That one was about school food which is something I am interested in, but apparently more so than the preceptor. We were released ridiculously early every day (before noon!). Didn’t learn much. Finally the last three weeks Gia and I have been at a community garden. Yep. That’s what happened.

 Guys

One date. Missed Joseph’s play that he helped produce because I got confused on the time. But still organized another movie date a week or so afterwards at his apartment. It was great. 🙂 We watched A Quiet Place and then read each other some of our writing. Short stories, poems, etc. It was really wholesome and unexpected.

Chance graduated university with a Bachelor’s in criminal justice. I dropped off some food for him while he was at work on Saturday since the Agronomer we work with at the garden had made some. Other than that I haven’t met up with him. …maybe since Easter. :/ Now, I miss hanging out with him, but don’t want to beg him for his time. I leave in a month though… Oh well.

5K to Triathlon?!

I’m so done with this internship. Just want it to be over. I guess that’s not new. The latest thing has been scrambling to complete the volunteer hours mandated. No events have been offered in over a month, so Gia and I have been going to the community garden every Saturday for the past three weeks. The one event that was offered recently was a 5k. Two of them. On the same day. We were told at a group meeting last Friday that they would take place on Sunday. Two days notice! One had the registration close Friday night, so I wasn’t able to register, but the other one… Yeah, Amanda really encouraged me to do it, so I did.

Mind you, I used to run, but haven’t done so in about two years. With two days to prep, yeahhhhh…. It wasn’t impressive, but I completed it. First 5k I’ve ever done. 😀 When I used to run I was training to complete a 5k and got to the point that I could run the whole thing. I was just working on improving my time then. I wanted to get faster before doing a 5K (Time was like 35 minutes, so not fast at all). So I never signed up. Now, out of the blue without any training in years, I did one. 47 minutes. Awful time, but I did it!

Remember when I said I obsess about things? I find a hobby and get so wrapped up in it? I focus for hours on it, planning and perfecting whatever it is that caught my attention. Eventually, I fall out of love. That’s inevitable. Welp, after the 5k, I met up with Amanda and since the finish line was across the street from a beach we went for a dip. I joked we should swim out and touch the buoy. Surprisingly, she said yes. No one else I’ve swam with in the ocean has been brave enough to go out deep enough to touch the buoys that mark the safe swimming area.

I was so excited I just took off in a mad dash! Halfway there I looked back and saw her way behind. She shouted “Wow! You’re fast!” I raced her a second time a while later and got two massive cramps in both my calves. Haha, that could have ended badly, but this was a race now! I had to keep going! Slowly I crawled to the buoy yelling encouragement to Amanda. Things like, “I’m injured, this is your moment!” Haha, it was so much fun! Afterwards Amanda asked me to swim with her next weekend saying she’d like train with someone fast like me. I joked that at this point I should train for a triathlon.

Yep. That was the spark. Now I am obsessed with triathlons. I’ve done a ton of research this week and have swim classes set up for when I get back to Texas. I even have decided on a triathlon to train for in late October. Hopefully I’ll be ready by then. I’m hoping this obsession lasts long enough until I start training, because if it does, I do enjoy running and swimming. I’ll keep doing those things. I just have to start. Biking is going to be new, but I think I can do it. 🙂

 

So, yep. That’s been my life the last six weeks. Only 5 weeks left in Puerto Rico! Hopefully I post again before I’m back in Texas. XD